Conventional treatments for cancer, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, can be used to selectively kill rapidly dividing cancer cells in the body. Conventional treatments, however, exhibit poor target specificity. The efficacy of chemotherapy, for example, is hindered, because chemotherapeutic agents affect both cancerous and non-cancerous rapidly dividing cells. The efficacy of chemotherapy is further decreased by poor retention of the chemotherapeutic agents within the target tumors.
Unfortunately, because conventional therapies also affect non-cancerous rapidly dividing cells, hair follicles, mucosal cells and hematopoietic cells are affected. As a result, conventional treatments for cancer typically result in undesirable, often severe, side effects including, but not limited to, hair loss, nausea, weight loss, reduction in white blood cells and damage to the mucosa. The suffering that cancer patients must endure results in a stressful course of therapy and may reduce patient compliance with prescribed therapies. Further, some cancers defy currently available treatment options, despite improvements in disease detection.
Unfortunately, therapies that specifically target and disrupt cancerous cells without harming non-cancerous cells, and therefore reducing or eliminating the unwanted side effects of conventional therapies, remain elusive.